User:CORSAIR2018/Polar Beverages

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In 1882 J.G. Bieberbach, an immigrant from Germany, started the J.G. Bieberbach beverage company in Worcester Massachusetts ; at a facility located on the property of 13 Summer Street. This company sold alcohol, gingerale, seltzer water and mineral water.

In 1916 the D.M. Crowley & Co. liquor business, which had been started in 1901 by D.M. Crowley himself, purchased the J.G. Bieberbach Beverage Company ; and went on to acquire the Leicester Polar Spring Company in 1918. This purchase was a very important one since it included the rights to a high quality freshwater spring located in Spencer, Massachusetts ; it was then that selling bottled water became a lofty part of his business because the quality of Worcester water, available at that time, was poor, and people were happy to pay for the availability of good clean water. Together, these three companies formed the Bieber Polar Gingerale Company.

When prohibition began in the United States in 1920 and the production of alcohol was forbidden, the BPG company had to make changes, so while ramping up production of its water, seltzer, and soda output it introduced a new line of beverages called drys ; and stopped selling whiskey. These non-alcoholic beverages became so popular that they never went back to the production or sale of alcohol again, and the dry line is still produced today from the original recipes introduced during prohibition.

In 1950, the grandsons of Dennis M. Crowley: Ralph D. Crowley Senior, Edward D. Crowley, James C. Crowley, and Denis M. Crowley, took over the company; and in 1962 Edward D. Crowley, the son of Polar Beverages patriarch Dennis M. Crowley, passed away. Edward had been a large, behind-the-scenes force in the company from the moment his father first started in the business up until his own death.

In 1966 the name was changed again so that people wouldn't think that gingerale was the company's only product. The new name was "Polar Corporation".